LOS ANGELES — It’s been covered in stickers, tagged with spray paint and pooped upon — marked with Sharpie, attacked with a pick axe, even topped with a golden toilet.
As similar as the Donald Trump brass and terrazzo star is to the 2,853 others on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, the one with his name on it has become the site of ongoing public protest, frequently documented through social media.
“When you’re president and in everyone’s life every day … the fact that he’s just such a constant presence, that probably fuels some of the behavior,” author and pop culture historian Chris Epting told Spectrum News.
Located on a bustling strip of Hollywood Boulevard in front of the legendary TCL Chinese Theatre, the Trump star drew a variety of reactions from visitors on a recent Friday afternoon. Some visitors smiled and posed with the star, while others made a point to stomp on it.
“I think it just represents how a lot of Americans and people around the world are feeling about him,” Landon Kissell, who was visiting from New York, told Spectrum News after asking his girlfriend to take a photo of his foot stepping on Trump’s name.
“He’s the worst president,” said Adriana Rincon, who lives in Los Angeles and was headed to the Chinese Theatre to see “The Odyssey” when she stopped to take a picture of her middle finger with the Trump star in the background. “I mean, why is he president? It’s ridiculous. He’s the worst.”
Just a few steps away from the star for actor Kevin Spacey, the Trump star was placed on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2007 to celebrate his work on “The Apprentice” television show. Like every other star along the 1.3-mile tourist attraction that draws about 10 million people each year, he was nominated for the star and ultimately selected by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce.
According to the Chamber, it costs $85,000 to sponsor a star on the Walk of Fame. The price includes creation and installation of the star, as well as induction ceremony expenses and maintenance of the star for its lifetime.
It remains unknown who nominated Trump for the star or who paid for it, but a group called the Hollywood Partnership is responsible for cleaning and polishing all of the Walk of Fame stars, which includes daily power washing, according to its website.
The group did not respond to several requests for comment about how often the Trump star requires additional cleaning.
The Walk of Fame is a registered historic landmark with the State of California. Vandalizing a star can result in felony charges under the California penal code, punishable by up to three years in prison and a fine of as much as $10,000.
Even so, from Reddit and Quora to Facebook and X, numerous users have posted videos and photos of Trump star defacements, which began during the president’s first term in office.
In 2016, a man dressed to look like a maintenance worker smashed the Trump star with a sledgehammer and used a pick axe to pry the plaque from the ground. The man told a news outlet at the time that he planned to auction it off and distribute the funds to women who had accused Trump of sexual assault. The president has denied those allegations.
While the star was replaced, the scars of the sledgehammer attack remain.
“People are angry,” said Rachel Thomas, who was visiting the Walk of Fame from Madison, New Jersey, and stopped at the Trump star to point out the missing piece of sidewalk to her son.
“They’re obviously angry, but they’re also vandalizing, which is pretty messed up,” Thomas told Spectrum News.
“It’s a shame,” said Richard Louie, a military veteran who was visiting the Walk of Fame from Falls Church, Virginia, and stopped to take a picture of the Trump star for his friends with his American Legion chapter back home. “There’s got to be some respect.”
Trump’s star isn’t the first to be defaced or protested.
The star for silent movie actor Charlie Chaplin was vandalized and chipped with a blunt instrument before it was formally unveiled in 1972 following accusations he was a communist sympathizer, according to Hollywood historian Marc Wanamaker.
In 2009, the stars for actors Sharon Stone and Ashley Olsen were both tagged with “fur hag” by animal rights activists. In 2018, following his criminal conviction for aggravated indecent assault, Bill Cosby’s star was graffitied with “serial rapist.” In 2025, Israeli actress and former soldier Gal Gadot’s star was defaced with anti-Israel slurs in permanent marker.
“Social media has obviously added a layer of performative protest that you wouldn’t have had in the ‘90s,” Epting said of Walk of Fame star vandalism.
While the vandalism of other stars is usually tied to a specific incident, Epting said, vandalism of the Trump star is ongoing because he is in the news every day.
“People who want to protest use the Walk of Fame because it immediately gets international attention,” Wanamaker said. “It’s immaterial what they’re doing it for. It’s just that they’re doing it for publicity purposes. What’s happening with Trump is because he’s in office now. Once he’s out of office, they’ll protest some other star.”
